The sun as it rose the next day saw the pair on their way to Genoa where Filippo decided to retire before the plots of his enemies. The tall, pale man rode upon a safe horse, which his wife was leading by the bridle. On both sides extended in the clearness of the autumn the heights and depths of the beautiful Apennines; eagles circled above the ravines, and far away in the distance glistened the sea. And calm and shining like the ocean there the future lay before the wanderers.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Meaning Treppi among the rock-hills.
THE STONEBREAKERS
BY FERDINAND VON SAAR
“The Stonebreakers,” written in 1869, marks an epoch in German literature—it is the first of the “Arbeiternovellen”—short stories of real laboring life.
The author, an Austrian nobleman, was born in Vienna in 1833. After the Italian campaign of 1859, he devoted himself to literature. Popularity, though late, came to him at last. In 1904 Vienna voted him an annual honorary stipend, and gave him a recognition that no Austrian author had received since the time of Grillparzer—he was elected to the Austrian Upper House.
Von Saar’s position in literature is that of creator of the short story in Austria. His style is stately, calm, dignified, delicate, sympathetic, polished—one of the modern masters, with a profound knowledge of life in all its phases.